Controller.



E. SMITH.

CONTROLLER.

APPLICATION FILED AUG. 5, 1908.

' Patented July 20, 1909.

2 SHEETS-SHEET 1.

A TTOHNEYS b/W/TNESSES 7 Q I I By E. SMITH,

CONTROLLER.

APPLICATION FILED AUG. 5, 1908. 7 928,707, Patented July 20, 1909. 2 SHEETS-SHEET 2.

WITNESSES INVENTOI? E E fizzgfimz'f/z BY- A TTOHNEYS UNITE STATE HARRY SMITH, OF SUFFERN, NEW YORK.

CONTROLLER.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented July 20, 1909.

Application filed August 5, 1908. Serial No. 447,072.

To-all whom it may concern:

Be it known that l, HARRY SMITH, acitizen of the United States, and a resident of Sufiern, in the county of Rockland and State of New York,- have invented a new and Improved Controller, of which the following is a full, clear, and exact description.

My invention relates to controllers, my more particular object being to provide a type of controller in which there is a revoluble drum carrying resistance windings upon its periphery, these windings being adapted to dip into a body of free mercury and being movable at will by aid of the revoluble drum for the purpose of varying the ohmic resistance of the windings.

My invention further relates to details of construction for controllers, whereby the general efiiciency of the latter is increased.

Reference is to be had to the accompanying drawings forming a part of this specification, in which similar characters of reference indicate corresponding parts in all the figures.

Figure 1 is a front elevation of the controller, the facing being removed for the pur pose of exhibiting the revoluble drum carrying the windin s; Fig. 2 is a substantially central vertica section through the controller showing it as seen from the right of Fig. 1, the commutator mechanism, gearing and hand lever for actuating the latter appearing in this figure and Fig. 3 is a general diagram of the wiring shown in this view as connected with a motor and with a source of current.

Mounted upon a base 3 which serves as a liquid receptacle, as hereinafter described, is a casing 4 into ral with the base. A facing is shown at 5 ig. 2) and may be removed at will. Bolt holes 4* are provided in the cas ing 4 to facilitate the attachment of the facing 5 thereto. The casing 4 is provided with a partition 6 and-with a spider 7, these arts being integral with each other. A revo uble shaft 8 of tubular form is journaled in the spider 7 andpartition 6.

Mounted rigidly upon the tubular shaft 8 is a gear 9 which meshes with a sector 10. This sector is integral with a collar 11, the latter being secured firmly upon a revoluble stub shaft 12. Secured upon this stub shaft and extending upwardly therefrom is ahand lever 13. A toothed sector 14 is mounted rigidly upon the spider 7 and disposed in'a plane parallel with the path of travel of the hand lever 13. The hand lever 13 carries a sleeve 15 in which is slidab ly mounted a pawl 15. Connected with this pawl is a wire 16 which leads upwardly to a'bell crank 17, the latter being journaled upon the lever 13. The operator by gripping and releasing the bell crank 17 causes the awl 15 to disengage and engage the toot ed sector 14.

mounted upon a commutator cylinder 22 of insulating material. Each of the commutator sectors describes substantially a semicircle. The sector 18 has double the width of the other sectors, as will be understood from Figs. 2 and 3. Commutator brushes 23, 24, 25 are mounted upon a board 7 carried by the spider 7. A wire26 is connected respectively with the sector 18. The sectors 21 and 19 are-connected together directly by a -wire 27. A wire 28 is connected with the sector 20.

A revoluble drum 29 of insulating material is mounted rigidly upon the tubular shaft 8. Mounted-upon this drum are windings 30, 310i resistance wire, such as manganese steel, German silver or a high resistance alloy. The windings 30, 31 are connected with the drum 29 at the oints 32, 33. A body of mercury 34 rests in t e bottom of the casing 4, and the upper surface of this mercury is in close proximity to the lower surface of the drum 29. When the arts are in normal position, as indicated in 3, the windings 30, 31 do not quite touch t e mercury. If desired, however, a little more mercury can be filled into the casing so that one or the other of the windings is alwaysin engagement with the mercury.

A (plate 35 having a sector-like form is secure u on the casing 4 and serves as a rest 'for the acing 5 and also as a barrier for preventing the outfiow of the mercury. A binding post 36 is mounted upon the casing and is in engagement with the mercury contained therein. From this binding post a wire 37 leads to a double-pole switch 38 which is connected with mains 39,40 for supplying current. -From the switch 38 a wire 41 leads to a field winding 42 of a motor 43. The armature of this motor is shown at 44 andthe collector of the motor at 45. At 46, 48 are the collector brushes, these being connected with'wires 47, 49. The wire 47 leads to the brush 24 and the wire 49 to the brush 25. The brush 23 is connected by a wire 50 with the motor field winding 42.

Commutator sectors 18, 18 19, 20, 21 are The operation of my device is as follows: The switch 38 being closed, the, operator simply grasps the hand lever 13 and in so doing grips the bell crank 17. He nextturns the hand lever 13 to a predetermined extent, thereby causing the sector 10 to, turn the gear wheel 9 and thus rotate the shaft 8 and the commutator segments of the drum 29. In doing this he causes one or the other of the windings 30, 31 to dip into the-mercury 34 and thus completes a circuit through the motor. Suppose, for instance; that the uper end of the hand lever, according to Fig. 3, e moved to the right. The drum 29 thereupon rocks to the left or in a contraclockwise direction so that the winding 31 dips into the mercury 34. The extent of rotation of the drum 29 determines the number of loops or turns of the winding 31 through which the current must pass.

Assuming the drum 29 to be turned slightly in the direction just referred to, the circuit may be traced as follows: main 39, left-hand member of double-pole switch 38, wire 37, binding post 36, mercury 34, resistance winding 31, wire 26, commutatorsector 18, brush 25, wire 49, brush 48, armature of motor, brush 46, wire 47, brush 24, sector 18*, brush 23, wire 50, motor field winding 42, wire 41, right-hand member of switch 38, main 40, back to the source of electricity with which the main 39 is connected. Suppose, however, that the lever 13 be dropped to the left, according to Fig. 3, the drum 29 now turns in a clockwise direction, the extent of rotation being determined by the degree of travel of the hand lever. I The following circuit is now com leted: main 39, left-hand member of switc 38, wire 37, binding post 36, mercury 34, winding 30, wire 28, sector 20, brush 24, wire 47, brush 46, motor armature, brush 48, wire 49, brush 25, sector 21, wire 27, sector 19, brush 23, wire 50, field armature 42, wire. 41, right-hand member of switch 38, main 4(), back to source of electricity with which main 39 is connected. It

" will be noted that while both of the circuits above traced traverse the motor field winding 42 in the same direction, the two currents versing mechanism for the motor, but also as avariable resistance rheostat for re *ulating the current. t may also be user as a starting device. It will thus be seen that my apparatus comprises a reversing commutator for changing the direction of rotation of the motor armature and a resistance operated directly in connection with the reversing commutator, so that by a simple movement of the hand lever the operator can not only cause the rotation of the motor armature to take place in either direction, but at any desired speed permitted by practical limitations.

Having thus described my invention, I claim as new and desire to secure by Letters Patent:'

1. In a device of the class described, a rotatable drum, a plurality of resistance windings arranged circumferentially of the drum and separated from each other, a body of metal with which the peripheral surface of the drum contacts, means for rotating the drum whereby to bring more or less of said windings into contact with the metal, and a commutator rotated with the drum, and a connection between the commutator and the resistance windings.

2. The combination of a revoluble shaft,

a drum mounted thereupon, resistance wind ings mounted upon said drum, a body of metal disposed adjacent to said resistance windings and adapted to be engaged thereby when said drum is turned, a commutator mounted upon said revoluble shaft, a con nection from said commutator to said resistance windings, and means controllable at will for turning said revoluble shaft.

3. The combination of a rheostat, a revoluble member for actuating the same, a plurality of commutator sectors mounted upon said revoluble member and insulated from each other, an electrical connection from one of said sectors to another, brushes engaging said commutators, electrical connections for said brushes, 9. rheostat, and electrical connections from-said rheostat to said commutator sectors. 4

In testimony whereof I have signed my name to this specification in the presence of two subscribing witnesses.

HARRY SMITH. 

